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In a 4,000 phrase most likely PR-approved profile on failed TV and radio host Bomani Jones, The Ringer declared that ESPN is racist towards black individuals.
“There are detailed accounts of the discrimination black employees have experienced at ESPN,” mentioned some man writing for The Ringer.
“Some of the network’s most high-profile black talent—Jemele Hill, Michael Smith, Cari Champion, Maria Taylor—has left in recent years. Because even though the network presents great opportunities (i.e., you can get paid), it can be restrictive to the point of exhaustion. ‘They sign my check, so I can’t just go open fire on ESPN when they do something I don’t like,’ Jones [said].”
(Good for Jones for not blasting his employer in change for the $2.4 million that ESPN was paying him.)
This complete paragraph is dishonest and uninformed. Let’s take it step-by-step:
The Ringer hyperlinks to Maria Taylor’s contract negotiations as a “detailed account” of discrimination towards black staff. Well, if Taylor’s state of affairs is an instance of discrimination, everybody shall hope ESPN discriminates towards them subsequent. The hyperlink doesn’t exemplify discrimination however privilege.
ESPN provided Maria Taylor $5 million a yr, $4 million greater than any competing community had provided her. Taylor turned down this provide as a result of she needed $8 million a yr, equal to Stephen A. Smith. Becasue ESPN had already compelled a number of skills to take pay cuts through the pandemic, it couldn’t pay Taylor Stephen A-level cash.
So Taylor’s group tried to exhort cash from ESPN by releasing a year-old audio clip that somebody privately recorded of Rachel Nichols, on which Nichols says ESPN picked Taylor over her to host the NBA Finals as a result of she is white and Taylor is black.
ESPN is so racist that it picked Taylor over Nichols, after which fired Nichols. That’s The Ringer’s first instance of ESPN’s discrimination towards black individuals.
Next, it names the “high-profile black talents” which have left ESPN. Notice the profile didn’t point out the 30+ white on-air skills ESPN has launched over the identical time interval, together with Mike Golic, Trey Wingo and Ron Jaworski. Moreover, ESPN didn’t minimize Hill, Smith, Taylor or Champion — they every left on their very own accord.
Taylor left ESPN to host Football Night in America and the Olympics at NBC. Poor her.
Hill, after refusing to cease injecting politics into her commentary, needed out of ESPN, and thus agreed to greater than $5 million in a buyout.
Hill knew she may make more cash shaming a number of corporations into paying her, as she’s doing now at CNN, The Ringer (paradoxically), The Atlantic, and Spotify.
Similarly, Hill’s former SC6 co-host Michael Smith refused to look on ESPN programming after the community canceled his present for very low rankings. Anyway, Smith additionally acquired round $5 million in a buyout.
As for Cari Champion, she declined an ESPN extension provide in 2020. ESPN deliberate to maintain Champion regardless of her infamous mistreatment of producers.
So none of those talked about skills are victims. Rather, all selected to go away ESPN after making hundreds of thousands of {dollars} for content material nobody consumed.
The piece reads as a favor to Bomani Jones. ESPN is paying Jones some huge cash to host a podcast whereas additionally permitting him to work for HBO. (Here are Bomani’s Jones rankings on HBO to date.) Obviously, that isn’t definitely worth the seven figures a yr ESPN pays Jones. And that’s the rationale for the menace.
If sufficient shops baselessly accuse ESPN of racism, it’s extra more likely to proceed paying Jones nicely above his value. The Ringer printed a puff-piece not solely to distract Jones’ failures however to additionally help in his subsequent negotiations with ESPN.
The author is letting ESPN know that if chooses to not pay Bomani Jones TV cash for a podcast, The Ringer will add Jones to its selective record of former ESPN skills, which conveniently solely included the few departed black personalities.
ESPN doesn’t discriminate towards black staff. Ask ESPN to launch its full schedule and hosts of every present for proof of that. The Ringer lied.
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